BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — Before they can even spell their own names, some kids are already learning how to sign them.

At one preschool, sign language is part of the daily curriculum, helping even the youngest learners communicate and stay engaged.

At The Learning Experience, from six weeks to 6 years old, the children follow a custom curriculum using math, phonics, Spanish language, STEM and sign language.

The Learning Experience part-owner and COO, Sabrena Rodriguez, sat down with Local 10’s Nicole Perez to talk about it.

“The Learning Experience is an academy of education,” she said. “Not only do we help watch children, provide child care, but we also teach and educate. We have tons of characters that express, signify each category that we work on. We’ve got Phoebe Fonix, and then we also have other things like Gibi Gibbons for sign language.

You might be wondering, why teach sign language at such an early age?

Rodriguez says it’s a strategy they use at The Learning Experience to keep the children engaged.

“One of the reasons that we want to give them the tools of the sign language, is so they don’t get easily frustrated,” she said. “And we can actually help keep them calmer, longer and more engaged and then help them transition to the next activity.”

She responded to the potential criticism of possibly confusing a child by learning too many languages at the same time.

“It just depends on how you do it,” Rodriguez said. “If I decide to sit there with books and having them read videos and whatnot, that’s just not going to work, but if you incorporate it into their daily activities, it’s just a normal routine for them.”

And the homework is not just for the kids.

“We actually have a parent connections responsibility every month to make sure that the parents are hopefully engaged with their child,” said Rodriguez.

Kimberaly Bernard is a busy mom of two and she said the school felt like a natural fit for her son.

“At home, we were already doing more, we were doing leche, we were doing help, so coming here it was like a natural transition,” she said.

Bernard said she’s embracing everything The Learning Experience has to offer.

“It was refreshing because it feels like a population that has not been served,” she said. “I think we underestimate what kids can do. I think that yes, in some senses, he took a little bit longer to start speaking because he was taking in so much information. But I promise you, once he started speaking, he had words in every language.”

And for other moms who may be hesitant to put their kids in preschool or feel like it is too much of an undertaking, Bernard had this to say.

“From my personal experience, because I kind of had to take that leap of faith, but for the world, do not regret it, I think it was one of the best choices to bring him to this school,” she said.

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